Spotify is now available in India with exclusive features and better value than any other market

Better late than never, they say. Spotify is now available in India after a long delay with exclusive features tailor-made for the country's listening preferences. Spotify will offer a wide range of Indian and international music along with the freedom to play across a wide range of apps and devices.

According to Spotify, the India-exclusive features include —

• Multi-language music recommendations across major Indian languages including Hindi, Pujabi, Tamil, and Telugu.
• Spotify Free with full control to play every song on demand
• Curated playlists made for Indian languages along with popular international playlists
• Starring... a series of playlists featuring the best music from latest Indian movie releases
• City Playlists to find out the hot music tracks playing in major cities.

Spotify will have an uphill battle against popular streaming services such as Apple Music, Gaana, JioSaavn, Hungama, and Amazon Music. The Swedish music streaming company is trying to woo Indian music lovers by offering the ad-free monthly subscription for just ₹119 (US$1.67) as opposed to US$9.99 in the US. A daylong subscription starts at just ₹13.

The non-paying users also have a better offer than what's being offered elsewhere. In India, Spotify users on the free plan will be able to search and play any song from the 40 million strong music collection unlike in the US where free users are served random songs and cannot choose their own tracks.

The launch of Spotify in India was not without hurdles, though. The delays in entering the market aside, Bloomberg reports that Spotify has been sued by the Warner Music Group in the Bombay High Court asking for an injunction against the launch and block Spotify from offering tracks by artists such as Katy Perry, Led Zeppelin, Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars, etc. in the country. Spotify says it is looking at an Indian Government rule that governs radio stations in offering songs from Warner/Chappell Music and is assessing its options.

All said and done, Spotify did confirm to Music Business Worldwide that the Bombay High Court declined Warner's request for an injunction and is "hopeful for a negotiated solution with Warner based on market rates."

With this expansion, Spotify is now available across 79 markets with 200 million users and 96 million subscribers.